Yves Samuel is a French portrait photographer. He works from his studio in Paris and also reports from around the world.
His interest in portraiture goes back to his early work for the press. He photographs politicians, artists, writers and business leaders.
He also creates more intimate series, with a strong artistic dimension, in which memory plays a predominant role.
One of his first series explores landscapes marked by the scars of the First World War, following the meanders of the Chemin des Dames.
Another of his series, accredited by the Mission Nationale du Centenaire 14-18, focuses on young people turning 20 on November 11, 2018, exactly one century after the signing of the armistice. He photographed them with a 4×5 camera, in a location of their choice, and asked them to write a text about their future lives, juxtaposing the contemporary portraits and their dreams with those of the soldiers of the First World War.
Yves Samuel is currently working on a vast series of portraits of French MPs, a project that will span several legislatures. Each portrait is associated with a photograph of a handwritten text about their dreams at age 20.
Torn between memory, history and his addiction to cinema, Yves Samuel produced a series of landscapes with a highly cinematic atmosphere: Mulholland Drive, Plymouth, Avant l’aube, Home Funerals. He has also made a documentary on Israel, combining portraits of film-makers and landscapes.
In Marks, a series in progress, Yves Samuel explores themes of silence, trauma, and visibility through work that confronts the enduring taboo of incest and childhood sexual violence.